GOG’s new owner has aimed a jab at Steam, calling out one of Valve’s biggest platform issues. According to Michał Kiciński, 95% of what lands on Steam every day “is not of very high quality”.

One of the most talked-about stories in the final stretch of 2025 was GOG’s separation from CD Projekt, led by Michał Kiciński, co-founder of the studio behind The Witcher. The Polish entrepreneur bought the classic PC game store for €21.5 million and made one promise crystal clear: the store’s main mission would remain untouched, continuing to deliver classic titles updated for modern systems – and DRM-free.

But now that the platform has started moving forward “on its own,” no longer directly tied to the Polish developer – which still has a strong footprint on Steam – its new head has taken the chance to challenge Gabe Newell’s store with a pointed criticism about how saturated Valve’s marketplace has become. In Kiciński’s words, you don’t need to ship “hundreds of games every day, 95% of which are not of very high quality” just to keep a platform relevant.

GOG Wants to Stand Apart from Steam Without Losing Its Identity

Speaking with GameIndustry.biz, Michał Kiciński argued that the smartest path for GOG is to double down on its anti-DRM philosophy, which he sums up with a simple idea: “the less third-party software in a game, the better for its longevity.” From the very beginning, the retro storefront has focused on removing that barrier, and it has kept doing so even with newer games whose commercial rights are still active.

He insists that “there’s no need to be like everyone else” and that GOG has a distinct identity and uniqueness that players genuinely value. At the same time, he admits going up against Steam is difficult, as Valve’s ease of use is exactly what makes it the default choice for so many users – but he believes there’s plenty GOG can do without sacrificing its core values or its usability. In his view, GOG is the platform best positioned to improve accessibility and discoverability for retro games and modern classics.

The logic behind it is fairly straightforward – and it also reads like a quiet jab at Steam now that the store no longer depends on its former parent company: Steam’s greatest strength is, for many releases, also its biggest enemy, flooding users daily with new games of uneven quality (not necessarily bad, but often not the best titles of the moment either – and they may never become them).

Because GOG doesn’t operate under that kind of “brutal competition” between titles, smaller developers could theoretically benefit from more breathing room. Still, the real goal isn’t to beat Valve, but to keep GOG positioned as a focused alternative and specialist in what other stores – likely not just Steam, but also the Epic Games Store – can’t offer with the same clarity and flexibility.

Looking Toward a Future Like Nightdive Studios

In his piece for Gameindustry.biz, Kiciński didn’t give a definitive answer to a question that has been circulating around the store: whether GOG could ever develop its own remasters, in the style of Nightdive Studios’ System Shock remake. He didn’t fully dismiss the idea either, adding that “it’s very close [to what I’ve said] regarding development and publishing, being involved in those processes,” and that heading in that direction could feel natural – although with the company only recently becoming independent, it’s still too early to commit to anything.

It wouldn’t be a wild leap, especially since one of GOG’s most valuable initiatives in recent times has been “Preserved Good Old Games,” a program designed to keep truly old titles alive – games that are often hard to run on modern computers and operating systems. A big part of that mission is supported through the mods GOG offers for some of these classics.

And when it comes to Steam comparisons, despite the impressive Workshop ecosystem, Valve has less direct control over mods – and in many cases, compatibility-focused projects for older games get buried under more popular releases. On GOG, meanwhile, works like Fallout: London or Skyblivion are receiving more visibility and support.

Source: 3djuegos